


The Scars of You and I

by CayCay384



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Just Sokka does actually, M/M, Past Abuse, Protective Sokka (Avatar), Scars, Sokka is pissed, The Gaang Learns How Zuko Got The Scar (Avatar), Zuko has scars, a lot of scars, hugs for days
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:42:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25803817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CayCay384/pseuds/CayCay384
Summary: After some sparring, Zuko and Sokka need to clean up. Sokka sees Zuko's scars, and like the curious mind he is, asks questions.Zuko answers them.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 1267





	The Scars of You and I

**Author's Note:**

> This is not an original idea in the slightest, I know. But I still thought it was cute.

Sokka easily parried the dual blades coming at his face, narrowly avoiding what would be the worst haircut of his life, then brought his sword up over his shoulder. He kept its dangerous ebony blade trained forward, a razor edge path to his opponent’s heart. All he had to do was thrust it forward to gore his enemy. He stayed silent as he glared across the small battlefield. The deadly gleam in his ocean-colored eyes faded into his typical bright-hearted joy after a moment. The tribal chief flashed a wide grin at the fire lord across the room from him.

“Phew I’m beat,” he ran a hand over his forehead to clear away the sweat. “Good match, Zuko. Don’t take it so easy on me next time.”

Zuko’s smile was smaller and more subtle, but it was there. The fire lord had traded his royal garb for a short robe and a pair of dark red pants that would be more suited to combat, and instead of the royal crest and topknot, he tied his hair back with a single piece of twine. He was a bit out of breath as he slid his swords into their respective sheaths and straightened up from his defensive stance. 

“Your swordsmanship is improving,” Zuko observed as he loosened the knot from his hair and let it fall down in messy waves to frame his face. 

“You think so? Huh. Maybe one day I’ll catch up with you,” Sokka was pleasantly surprised. He took the hem of his own blue tunic and gave it a few shakes to allow a current of cool air inside. The surprise quickly faded when he noticed Zuko’s insightful smirk. “Wait. You  _ were  _ taking it easy on me, right?”

Zuko shook his head, still smiling. 

“So I beat you? Like for real?” Sokka’s excitement was very childlike despite the fact that both men were well into their twenties. Zuko would never admit to how endearing he found it. 

A nod.

“Wait wait wait. Let me get this straight. I beat you? I beat the  _ fire lord _ ? Without you holding back?”

“Well… I can use my bending next time if that makes it more of a challenge?” Zuko offered with a light shrug. 

“No no no no no,” Sokka threw an arm around Zuko, and both of their skin was sticky with sweat. He spoke in a lighthearted, casual tone. “I just think it’s interesting to note that my skills are superior to yours even though I started working with swords later than you. I am a natural master of the sword, I am the most lethal killer in all of-”

Zuko used his leg to sweep Sokka’s legs out from under him. When the chief went down, the fire lord calmly sat down on his opponent’s back with a sword pressed between his shoulder blades. He snickered very softly. The sound was so rare that it shocked Sokka far more than the easy take down.

“Next lesson: Never let your guard down,” Zuko teased lightly. 

“I don’t know whether to be ticked that you’re laughing at me or thrilled that you’re laughing at all,” Sokka grunted as Zuko gave him a hand up. “Anyway, you stink. Is it alright if we get cleaned up and grab some food before Aang and King Kuei get here? I’m starving, and I think the earth king is bringing Toph this time. She’ll never let it go if I smell like this during a peace meeting.”

“Of course,” Zuko was already walking down the massive halls towards his expansive quarters. He went through it all as if he’d seen it a million times- Sokka supposed he had- but the latter was enthralled by the curving architecture and the orange glow of the torches, which sent flickering shadows across the room. “I don’t have any of your spare clothes here anymore. Katara took them all back the last time she was here… are fire nation robes acceptable?”

“Not the first time I’ve worn them,” Sokka answered with a lighthearted smile. “Even though red is so tacky.”

Zuko gave Sokka a side-eyed glance with an eyebrow raised, but it was playful. He came to a stop outside a door that was at least three times his height. Sokka stared up at it in wonder. He’d never been in Zuko’s room before. He’d seen the fire nation palace as a guest multiple times due to his status as both chief of the water tribe and closest friend to the fire lord, but he still had no idea what his companion’s living space looked like. He made a mental note to find as many possible things to rib Zuko for later. 

The fire lord wrapped a hand around the gold-encrusted handle, which was gracefully molded into a curving, twisting design that resembled the tongues of flames licking at the sky. He took a deep breath and turned his amber eyes on Sokka for a few seconds. 

“It’s… disorganized,” his voice was hesitant, apologetic. 

“It can’t be as bad as my tent,” Sokka said with a small scoff. 

Zuko slowly pulled open the massive door, which was apparently lighter than it looked, because he did so with little visible effort. Sokka peered inside, curious. And his jaw dropped. It was almost exactly what he’d expected, and yet, he was still impressed. A boundless red room with a massive bed, made with a heavy blanket and dozens of pillows. There was a massive wardrobe that appeared to be made from some sort of black marble. Not a hint of wood could be found in the room, whose windows had their shades drawn tight. 

Zuko cleared his throat as he slowly parted his curtains and tied them back with a piece of golden silk. “Anyway… uh, you can go first. The bathroom is over there.”

Sokka kept looking around as he followed the fire lord’s direction. There was a bedroll laid out on the floor next to the bed, clearly slept in. He wondered whether that meant Zuko had a roommate or whether it meant Zuko honestly preferred sleeping on the shaggy red carpet. For some reason, he felt a spike of jealousy when he thought about the former. Nothing else about the room seemed even remotely disorganized, as Sokka was thinking about the disaster that was his tent at home. 

“Thanks,” Sokka said as he entered the- no surprise- enormous white-walled bathroom, which was pristine and accented with gold. A claw-footed tub sat on one side of the wall, a sink across from it. Everything looked beautiful, so much fancier than Sokka had ever seen. “Whoa,” he breathed as he ran a hand over the polished marble of the sink. Despite leading his tribe, Sokka lived a very rugged existence. He didn’t envy or resent Zuko for it, of course. It was just a foreign lifestyle.

The water tribe chief stripped his clothes and sank down into hot water. While he freed his hair from its knot, the door opened a crack. Before he could yell at Zuko, a slim, pale hand deposited a handful of clothes onto the sink, and the door slipped back closed. 

“Sorry,” Zuko said through the door. “Those should fit.”

“Thanks,” Sokka repeated as he cleaned himself up. He spent far too long sitting in the steaming water and admiring the architecture of the room. When he finally rinsed his hair and began getting dressed, he sifted through the clothes Zuko had brought. 

After a while, he settled on something fairly simple. A brown sleeveless shirt under a red collared vest with black pants. All of them were a bit oversized, but they worked well enough. His boots could be salvaged, so he sprayed them down with a bit of some odd-smelling cologne in a fancy diamond-shaped bottle. When Sokka slipped his shoes back on, he stole a glance at himself in the mirror. And he couldn’t resist holding up his arm to survey his biceps. He’d definitely filled out a lot over the past few years. 

“Alright, finished,” Sokka exited the room. He’d forgotten to tie his hair back up. 

Zuko was seated on his bed, writing something on a very fancy-looking scroll. He looked up, and his amber eyes lingered on Sokka for a second too long.

“Do they fit well?” Zuko asked softly.

“Yeah, they’re good,” Sokka smiled. “Anyway, your turn.”

Zuko nodded and walked into the bathroom. Sokka snooped around in the meantime. A few treaties were tossed over the large desk in the corner of the room, but nothing much about it was very personalized. The only thing that screamed ‘Zuko’s room’ was the collection of various swords and creepy masks on the back wall in between two large bay windows.

After a while, the bathroom door cracked a bit to reveal that it was dark inside. “Hey Sokka?” Zuko’s voice was quiet, awkward.

“What’s up?”

“I forgot to grab my robes, don’t look up, okay?”

Sokka nodded, then remembered Zuko couldn’t see him. “Yeah, okay.” He turned his eyes down, but caught a glimpse of the fire lord as he emerged through his peripheral against his will. Zuko had a red towel wrapped around his waist, but that wasn’t what made Sokka break his promise not to look up. It was the scars. 

Over the surface of Zuko’s body were various scars. Long thin ones, gnarled twisted ones, and huge ones covering his back. A massive one in his abdomen, sprawling over his rib cage. A long curving scar wrapped itself around Zuko’s upper arm. Another flat surface area was raised and red over his shoulder. Sokka had a few scars himself… but this? There were so many… he-

His eyes traveled up Zuko’s neck, and he accidentally met the fire lord’s amber gaze. Zuko stared at him for a moment before he grabbed a robe and threw it around his shoulders to conceal his body. He pulled it close around himself, like a shield. There was a new expression of hurt on his face as he grimaced, refusing to meet Sokka’s eyes again. 

“I asked you not to look,” he whispered.

“I- I’m sorry,” Sokka stammered, for once at a loss. “I- You have so many scars.”

Zuko winced and dipped his head, as if he were ashamed. “I know,” his voice was irritated, and he glared at his hands, which he’d folded in front of him. He was shaking. “They- They’re ugly. That’s why I didn’t want you to see. I’m ugly.”

“No!” Sokka said sharply. “No, you’re not. Don’t say that.”

Zuko glanced up at him, skeptical. Sokka, feeling bold now that Zuko was showing genuine vulnerability to him, crossed the room and reached out to the fire lord. 

“Can I touch you?” he asked softly. 

A nod. 

Sokka curled gentle hands around Zuko’s shoulders and gently pulled the robe off. “Look, Zuko. Despite me being clearly the best looking member of Team Avatar, you’re a close second. Nothing about you is ugly,” he ran a hand over one of the scars. “Not even these.”

“That one was from a knife fight with a fire nation soldier during my time in the earth kingdom as a diplomat last year,” Zuko said softly, his voice cracking.

Sokka’s hand slipped down to one above his hip, lightly tracing a scar that had Zuko’s skin gnarled and raised.

“A burn from a spar with Azula when we were kids,” Zuko muttered, closing his eyes. 

The water tribe chief let his fingers travel over each and every scar. Each one came with its own story. He eventually settled on a long, thin scar running down Zuko’s right shoulder. It appeared to be from a blade.

“That one was… you,” Zuko had lowered his head and sank down onto his bed, and Sokka sat with him. 

“It was?”

“Yeah. Your boomerang is sharper than it looks,” Zuko said with a tired scoff.

Sokka’s shoulders fell back. “I’m sorry,” he murmured as his hand came down to the center of Zuko’s rib cage, where a scar very similar to the one on Aang’s back was laid out like a star on the fire lord’s skin. “Azula?” He guessed. 

“Yeah,” Zuko murmured. “Lightning. During our agni kai.”

Sokka continued his process until his hand finally trailed up to brush the largest scar over Zuko’s eye. In response, the scarred leader closed his eyes. He laid his hand on the fire lord’s cheek and spoke in a very gentle, hesitant voice. “And… this one?”

Zuko opened his eyes and looked at Sokka for a long time. They were silent. “I… I never told you?”

Sokka shook his head. 

“When I was thirteen,” Zuko began, much to the horror in his companion’s eyes. “I spoke out against a general’s plan to put inexperienced soldiers on the front line as fodder. But I’d disrespected my father in his war room. He challenged me to an agni kai, per royal protocol.”

The water chief was outraged. “He fought you when you were a kid?” He snarled. “I’ll kill him. I’ll go to the prison right now-”

“Not exactly,” Zuko took Sokka’s wrist in his own hand and guided it away from his scar. The latter gave him a wary look, like he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the rest. “I refused to fight him, so he decided to teach me a lesson before he exiled me.”

Sokka’s anger turned to sheer hatred. He ground his teeth together, balling his hands into fists at his sides. “That… He’s a monster,” he said this as if it were new information. “I’d always assumed you’d been hurt in some kind of training accident. Or… even that Azula had- but your  _ father _ ?”

Zuko had never seen Sokka so furious. He shook his head. “The man got what he deserved. There’s no reason to hate him now.”

“Of course there is!” Sokka exploded. “I never knew what he did to you! I always held your choice to chase Aang against  _ you _ , not him! I hated the wrong person all that time!” 

Zuko recoiled at the shouting, shrinking back ever so slightly. Sokka noticed, and his expression softened. 

“I’m sorry,” he amended, wrapping Zuko up in a hug. The fire lord tensed in shock at the touch, but he relaxed against the chief, nestling his head in the crook of Sokka’s neck, concealing himself away from the world while Sokka relished the warmth. They held onto one another for a long time. 

“I love you,” Sokka eventually whispered, his chin resting on Zuko’s shoulder. “I love you, and I’ll never let someone hurt you again.”

Zuko smiled a little, but the look was shy. “I love you too, Sokka…. But I think I should get dressed. The others will be here soon.”

“Right,” Sokka agreed.

A pause. “Sokka. That means you have to let me go.”


End file.
